Stump-extractor



WASHINGTO HALL, OFBREIVER, MAINE.

STUMP-EXTRACTOR.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 1.93562, dated March 9, 1858.

To all 'whom 25 may concern:

Be it known that I, WASHINGTON HALL, of Brewer, in the county of Penobscott and State of Maine, have invented a new and useful Improvement on Stump-Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, in which- Figure l is a plan; Fig. 2 is an end elevation and Fig. 3 is a side elevation.

The same letters refer to like parts in all the figures.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

I construct a. frame of wood with uprights a, a; each upright having a foot Z), secured to its lower end on which it stands. The uprights are secured a proper distance from each other by two girts o, 0, framed into the upper end of them; and in order to make the frame morey rigid, there are two diagonal braces d, 0l, locked together in the forni of across and bolted to the back side of the uprights, as represented in Fig. 3. There is a horizont-al windlass shaft e, hung in the uprights, about four and a half feet above the ground, with caps f, y", bolted to the uprights over the journals of the shaft to.

This shaft has ak ratchet hold it in its place. wheel g, on each end outside of the uprights, and each ratchet is supplied with a lever it, a pawl z', and a catch y'. The head of the lever is made of iron with two prongs 7c, 7c, which straddle the ratchet wheel and encircle the shaft, the shaft being the axis `or fulcrum of the lever; the outer end of the head is provided with a socket for the insertion of a long lever. The pawl is hung between the prongs of the-lever to av pin Z, extending through them. The upper end of this pawl is provided with a hook, which hooks into notches made in the periphery of the ratchet wheel. The catch is placed at theback side of the ratchet wheel; the lower end of it is hung by a bolt m, to the upright a little below the wheel, and the other end extending upward is made to drop `into the notches in the backside of the wheel. In

order to hold the catch in its proper position there is a spring n, secured by a bolt o, to the lower end of the brace which projects out by the upright. The upper end of this spring bears against the upper end of the catch and holds it against t-he ratchet wheel. This spring is made toturn a very little on the bolt which holds it, as represented by dotted lines in Fig. 3, so as to allow the catch to drop back free from the ratchet wheel. There are two hooks p, p, set in the shaft, one near each end, just inside of the uprights. One end of the cha-in g, is hooked on to one of these hooks, and the other end is hooked on to the other hook, so that when the shaft is turned the chain will wind around it.

With this machine the heaviest and most firmly set stumps can be pulled out ofthe ground with ease and great rapidity. In order to operate this machine it is placed as near the stump as it can be conveniently; the operator then digs around the main root of the stump, so as to give a chance to put the chain under it, he then unhooks'one end of the chain and passes it down under the root and brings it up and hooks it on to the shaft again. outer end of one of the levers, and as he A man then takes hold of the raises it up the pawl slides up over the y notches on the periphery of the ratchet wheel; and when he brings the lever down again, the hook on the underside of the pawl seizes a notch on the ratchet wheel and causes the ratchet wheel, together with the shaft, to revolve. The catch on the back side of the ratchet wheel, being held against the wheel by the' action of the spring, drops into the notches alternately and prevents the wheel from turning back. Two or more men can work` at this machine, and as there are two ratchets and two levers, they can be worked alternately, producing a continuous rotary motion to the shaft; and as the shaft revolves the chain winds around it and pulls the stump from the ground. When 1t is designed to unwind the chain, the springs which hold the catches are swung vout as represented by dotted lines in Fig. 3; the catches then drop back by their own gravity and leave the ratchet wheels together with the shaft at liberty to turn back freely.

Having thus fully described the construction and operation of my improvement on stump machines, I will now state what I claim as my invention and desire to secure constructed and operating as te form a cheap by Letters Patentand effective machine for the purpose set The combined arrangement of the simple forth.

levers la, 71 having Jtheir fulerum in the A WASHINGTON HALL. j 5 Windlass axle, With Jche retehets g, g, actuat- Vitnesses: 1

ing and retaining pawls z' i and j, y', axle e THOMAS DAVIS,

and frame Work a, b, o, d, the Whole so JOHN HILFERTZ. 

